Unless you’ve been nesting in a mossy, dank, dark place for the past decade, you might have noticed that women are taking over the workplace and may soon become the breadwinners in American families, and maybe a good portion of the industrialized world.

By 2014, for example, women’s income is expected to grow by more than $5 trillion globally, according to the World Bank.

• A 2010 Pew Research Center report shows that men in 2007 were more likely to marry a woman who is more educated and makes more money than they do.
• Meanwhile, the Gender, Institutions and Development Database, which analyzes the economic and political power of women in 162 countries, found that the greater the power of women, the greater the country’s economic success.

For those of you in planned giving, this is a macro trend that should influence the way families plan—given that women are getting married later in life and having less children—and possibly what charities they opt to support.

The Story Behind the Shift

We may have seen this coming for some time. Women have long been the majority of those in college, majoring in fields that are expected to flourish for the next decade—primarily education and healthcare, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Add in the fact that eight out of 10 of those who have lost their job through this recession have been men, and you can see why the shift isn’t merely a short-term blip. 

While a wage gap still exists in the U.S, women have benefited from equality in the workplace as well as the emergence of the intelligence economy.

And from a sociological perspective, the assumptions about bread winner and home maker have been blurred for some time. Many of today’s 20- and 30-somethings were raised in two-income households, where their parents had to share the household responsibilities.

As a result, we’re seeing a monumental shift in thought: Forever families hoped for a son to be their first born because of their assumed productivity in the fields in a once agrarian society.

Not so anymore.  

In South Korea, a 2009 poll by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education found that 38 percent of mothers said they hoped for a daughter as their first born, while 31 percent said they preferred a son and the rest had no preference—a significant departure from societal attitudes in South Korea’s past.

How Companies Are Catering to This Trend

Without hammering out all the effects this has on family life—living single longer, less likely to marry at all, rise in stay-at-home dads, more likely to divorce, etc.—let’s take a brief look at how companies are creating opportunities out of this shift.

• The 2010 Chevy Equinox offers a slew of features meant to cater to female drivers. One of which is a gas pedal that allows women to maneuver with stilettos on.
• For the business woman, apple-tinis just won’t do when discussing business anymore. Bourbon Women is a group led by a former whiskey industry executive intended to bring women together who want to learn about the “softer, smoother” side of the dark brown liquor. The bourbon industry has since expanded its offerings to women with more drink recipes and packaging that shows a more feminine side.
• In Good Company is a shared office space, located in Manhattan, N.Y., for female entrepreneurs who want to exchange ideas with other like-minded female professionals.
• In order to attract top talent, consulting firm Deloitte offers a career program called Mass Career Customization, where employees can adjust work hours based on their stage in life—like early motherhood.

What This Means for the Planned Giving Industry

This is a massive trend. For those of us in planned giving, we are not only speaking to new lifestyles, but new demographic groups where age means less than it has in the past.

• A Pew Research report shows that the number of babies born to women 35 and older spiked by 64 percent from 1990 to 2008.

As I point out in an upcoming trend report, “Working Longer, Living Happier,” estate planning officers should expect a much older workforce in the next decade.

• The number of women aged 65 to 74 in the civilian labor force is projected to increase by 90 percent from 2008 to 2018, more than the number of women in any other age group, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Those of you who offer free estate planning courses for donors, may have to consider how diverse women’s lifestyles and financial situations are these days. We could see a working grandmother who wants to leave something behind for grandchildren but wants to ensure she has enough to sustain herself for the rest of her life.

• Remember, women live longer in the U.S., so security and planning confidently could be major concerns.  Could charitable gift annuities or lead trusts alleviate some of those concerns?

And what does this all mean for charities? For the longest time, men have ruled society. Now that the money is shifting, we could see women influencing society by deferring more of it to charity.

The women’s rights movement in the 1920s shows just that: Women turned to philanthropy with what little power they had in those days.

Christine Grumm, the former executive director of the Chicago Foundation for Women said in a 1999 article of the Chronicle of Philanthropy: “Men have understood for years their economic power to bring about change—or maintain the status quo. Women have some real answers for problems facing our society, but there is not enough respect for their ideas.

“The reason is that we have not flexed our muscle enough in terms of money.”

Well, it looks like the time has arrived. Start flexing.

 Michael Mitchell, editor, The Stelter Company